Monthly Archives: December 2017

It’s quite possible to play Pathfinder or D&D alone. In fact, for some, the only choice at getting into D&D or Pathfinder might be to play solo. For others that have friends that play but don’t have friends that want to DM, there’s no need to go without. There are even ways to DM without all of the hard work that can go into creating maps.

So how do you get started?

Endless RPG was created to allow the flexibility to play without a dedicated DM by having an iPhone, iPad and Android device present a random adventure in a player-friendly manner. Most random dungeon generators are designed for DMs, and as such, they spill all the goods. Endless RPG plays like a turn-based role-playing game with a fog of war that you must uncover as you explore and hidden encounters, treasures, traps and other secrets. The only difference: Endless RPG tells you what you find but all of the dice rolling is up to you.

It’s best if you already know the basic rules of D&D or Pathfinder, but even if you are just getting started, Endless RPG can be a solid way to learn the rules. The key ingredients are the books, the dice, the app and a healthy dose of imagination. If you are the type that likes to talk to themselves, even better because you can roll up multiple characters!

How to DM Yourself in D&D and Pathfinder

Endless RPG gives you the feeling of exploring and not knowing exactly what may come next, but when it comes to rolling combat, you will have to DM yourself. After all, you are in charge of both the monsters and your character (or even a whole group of characters!).

The Battle Map provided with the app can help with tactics, but it can also be fun to use miniatures on a table. Before beginning combat, try to come up with a basic strategy for how the party is going to handles the creates. But instead of jumping right into the dice rolls, do the same thing for the other side. How would they fight your party? If its a bunch of goblins, they’ll probably just charge right in with the most basic tactics, gnolls might be more clever, demons might be exceedingly clever, etc.

Remember, the threat of death is what makes the game so good, so be fair. Also, don’t be afraid to use the dice for more than just standard dice rolls. If you are fighting a spell caster, come up with a percentage chance of them casting a spell or roll a dice to see which spell they cast. Is that goblin taking a beat down? Roll to see if they decide to flee! The fun part is coming up with some basic rules, such as cowardly creatures running on a roll of 6 or less on a d10 if they are badly injured while more courageous (or stupid!) creatures only run on a roll of 2 or less.

Also keep in mind that Endless RPG cannot take into account every situation. If you cast a spell that should have detected a trap that you subsequently stumbled over and failed a perception roll, feel free to alter events to fit that initial spell!

How to Play D&D/Pathfinder In A Small Group Without a DM

This is where Endless RPG can really shine. Simply take turns on who is the DM from one encounter to the next. This is a great way of keeping everyone fair and spreading out the work.

Everything said above applies, but you can do more strategizing for the encounter. Let your character step back and be more of a DM’s NPC — aiding combat, but not leading it. And then see what kind of ass-whooping you can do to the party!

It’s a good idea to use dice to see what party members are targeted by specific creatures in the encounter. This can help curb any arguments about a certain character getting targeted too much. But play within the tactics of the encounter: ogres are dumb, drow elves are smart, etc.

Use Random Generators to Round Out the Adventure

Whether you are playing solo or simply without a dedicated DM, random generators are a great way to introduce story and surprise into the equation. Here are a few good websites with different random generators:

The Random Adventure Generator on Donjon is a good way to kickstart a story and all of the websites have random goodness that can add to the adventure.

How to DM Pathfinder or D&D Without Putting In as Much Work!

Do you want to DM but just don’t have the time? You aren’t alone. There are plenty of people who love to tell a great story but don’t really love drawing out detailed maps.

Endless RPG can provide a backbone of content that lets you tell your story. You can game master the campaign, control what happens in town and with NPCs, and when you need a tower full of orcs or a ruin with skeletons, Endless RPG can provide it. Because the app lets you choose a monster group as well as a setting and a challenge rating, you can tailor the adventure to your story.

It’s a good idea to familiarize yourself with all of the monster groups available as enemies by going to the Custom screen in the adventure map and tapping through the challenge ratings. The available enemy groups will change with specific CR, so once you hit 20th, you’ll have a good idea what you can throw at the party.

The latest update to Endless RPG adds important DM controls to the app that will allow dungeon masters who are just starting out or who want to focus more on story than map building a great way to add content to the campaign. The new controls allow a DM to create a random dungeon by picking a Challenge Rating for the map, picking an environment such as Cave, Ruins or even a Castle with a Dungeon, and picking a primary ‘enemy’, which can be anything from orcs to goblins to giants to demons to undead (etc.).

The new DM mode will also allow game masters to check out the random dungeon, exploring the map, looking into encounters or treasures, etc. Everything is numbered (Trap 1, Trap 2, Treasure 1, etc.) so the DM can make their own notes in their favorite note-taking app, perhaps adding or subtracting to treasures or encounters or simply changing the DC to pick a lock. The dungeon can be drawn out for the players and the app used as a module for the game master, or the DM Mode can be turned off an Endless RPG handed back to the players to allow them to explore.

My goal is that DMs who want to use it for a one-off, who want to use it as part of a campaign to quickly create an area, or who want to focus on Story and use it to help fill in content will be able to do so. Because it allows you to pick a lot of encounter types from CR .25 to 20, it gives a fair amount of flexibility. A new DM can use it to get into the groove, creating a story where invading orcs are perhaps teaming up with goblins to attack a village, with the character party first rooting the goblins out of their cave and then taking on the orcs in their stronghold.

We’ve all been there. We want to play D&D but no one wants to be the DM. Or worse, we don’t know anyone who plays. Or slightly better, we play in a regular group but want to play on days the group can’t get together.

Endless RPG will create a dungeon, sometimes even a multi-level dungeon, filled with different monsters, treasures, traps and secrets. The adventure can take place in a traditional dungeon, a cave, ruins or other settings,

The app is designed for the dungeon to be explored, so the map remains cloaked in the fog of war until the party explores it. Encounters are communicated to the player and there’s even a tactical battle map for helping out, but all of the actual good stuff (i.e. rolling the dice) is done outside of the app.

Endless RPG can be played solo, in a group without a DM by alternating who DMs each battle or even with a dedicated DM as a one-off adventure.